With all the charities raising money for Haitian relief, one name has caught my ear: The William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation. And it set off alarm bells for me.

When Hurricane Katrina struck, President George W. Bush reached out to his two immediate predecessors and tasked them with heading up fundraising for relief. And last week, President Obama followed that example and talked Bill Clinton and George W. Bush into doing the same for Haiti.

No real problem, right?

The only concern I have is that about a month ago, I did a little research into charities for a completely unrelated story. And one tidbit of that research I discovered is that the Clinton Foundation is one of the most inefficient charities around -- about 2/3 of all the moneys it receives goes into overhead, not charity.

Maybe they're doing things differently with the Haiti effort. Maybe they've set it up so most -- if not all -- of the funds they get earmarked for Haiti go towards actually helping Haiti.

But I'd not recommend taking that chance.

And that's not a purely political opinion. Yeah, I'm not that fond of Bill Clinton, and that's probably why I both noted his foundation's inefficiency and why it stuck in my mind, but the facts speak for themselves.

There are plenty of other groups who are both helping the Haitians and have a far better record of making certain donations go towards the worthy causes. I have a bit of fondness for the American Red Cross (I'm a seven-gallon blood donor), but I wouldn't recommend using the text-message donation method -- from what I understand, the actual donation is tacked on to your cell phone bill, and not made until you pay that bill.

I submit this not as support or dispute but CN is a site I have used in the past for looking into charities. I believe this site has a good rep. I notice that the most recent info charted for the Clinton Foundation on the site is 2007.

The Clinton Foundation is actually one of the most EFFICENT nonprofits with over 95% of expenditures going to programming. 100% of all contributions earmarked for Haiti will go straight to the recovery efforts.

In 2008, The William J. Clinton Foundation only spent 2.5% on administrative costs and 1.6% on fundraising. The 95.9% that went to programming has among other things, provided lifesaving AIDS medication for over two million people, worked with 6,000 schools in America to reduce childhood obesity, and worked to retrofit over houndreds of buildings to reduce energy costs and consumption.

Again, of all money donated to the Clinton Foundation's Haiti fund will go towards the rescuing and treating Haitians affected by this tragedy and rebuilding the country. No overhead or admin costs

Hey, Troooth, you got a link to back that up? DaveD offered up some proof to back up what he said, and he's got me thinking about doing a followup, but you? Oh, please. From your self-aggrandizing name to your refusal to cite sources to what is almost certainly a cut-and-paste job, I'm pegging you as an asshole.

Who might be right on this point, but I'm not taking your word for squat.